J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2016 Apr;27(2):150-156. 10.0000/jksem.2016.27.2.150.

Empathy and Quality of Life in Korean Emergency Physicians

• Seo JW
• Park KH
• Park HY
• Sun KH
• Park SY
• Kim TH
• Roh H
• Cho J

• KMID: 2164244
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.0000/jksem.2016.27.2.150

Abstract

PURPOSE
Empathy in medical practice is related to medical communication and clinical competence. In previous studies, low quality of life and other factors play an integral role in low empathy among physicians. We evaluated the relationships between empathy, quality of life, and other factors among Korean emergency physicians.
METHODS
The survey was conducted using email to emergency physicians. The respondents completed a questionnaire including demographic information, the Jefferson Scale of Empathy, and the Brief version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment instrument. Correlation analyses were performed, along with sub-analyses according to gender.
RESULTS
A total of 180 questionnaires were analyzed. The median value of the empathy scale was 89.0, and quality of life 64.8. Empathy was positively correlated with quality of life, age, and work experience as a specialist in total samples and males. Only work experience as a specialist showed correlation with empathy in females. Quality of life showed no association with age, work experience, and work load. However, quality of life showed negative correlation with age and work experience in female physicians.
CONCLUSION
The more experienced specialist emergency physicians are, and the better quality of life they have, the higher level of empathy scale they have. Therefore, good quality of life could lead to good empathy, and vice versa. Good quality of life and good empathy could lead to the better outcome in emergency care. However, because the female physicians show different patterns of empathy and quality of life, further study is needed.

Keyword

Empathy; Quality of life; Emergency physician

MeSH Terms

Clinical Competence
Electronic Mail
Emergencies*
Emergency Medical Services
Empathy*
Female
Humans
Male
Quality of Life*
Specialization
Surveys and Questionnaires
World Health Organization